A 32-year-old dental hygienist and her retired mother are together looking for a detached, single-family home in a quiet, well-kept Detroit suburb. With no children in the household, they don’t need a huge property. But they wish for a quiet, calm neighborhood with lots of character.

“We’re attracted to the Ford Homes Historic District. It has charming old houses and very few through streets. This community feels very welcoming, and that’s important for us,” says the hygienist.

The enclave, built beginning in the 1920s and designed by the Ford Motor Company to house workers, offers a mix of vintage cottages and Tudors, though property turnovers there are relatively rare.

“It’s OK if we have to wait for the perfectly right house to come on the market. All we’re looking for is a place in good condition with an interesting history,” the hygienist says.

Both mother and daughter, who intend to share the monthly mortgage payments, are convinced they can find an affordable house in the neighborhood, where median prices range from $275,000 to $400,000.

Amanda Pendleton, a home trends specialist for Zillow, the national real estate company, says that in the wake of the pandemic, many home buyers began rethinking their priorities.

Pendleton says 2025 has been the year when “people stopped searching for more home and started searching for more meaning at home. Across the country, buyers want homes that can flex for family, offer access to nature and deliver daily comforts that make life feel easier and more joyful.”

Zillow did a systematic review of the search terms used by buyers as they screen online home listings.

She says comfort edged out luxury, with less interest in terms connoting high-end living, including “mansion,” “luxury” and “acreage.” Attracting more interest were properties with fireplaces, garden space and fenced yards.

Meanwhile, many buyers favored listings for homes that felt safe, including gated communities. Also, an increasing number of buyers are seeking property close to water.

Doro Kiley, a Virginia-based life coach who helps clients craft their lifestyle plans, doesn’t know the dental hygienist and her mother in this true story. But she urges anyone in their position to imagine their ideal home and setting well ahead of launching their home search.

“Having a mental picture of your ideal is a great place to start. You can always pare your list of features as your house hunt progresses,” Kiley says.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Put your priorities into prose.

Those who are planning to buy property with another adult often differ on ideal housing choices. That’s why Kiley says it’s helpful for both to write down their respective visions and then seek to shape them into a single statement.

Written statements help people clarify their thinking and refine the details of their plans as they move through successive drafts. Such statements also help buyers reconcile differing views.

-- Weigh issues related to commuting times.

Mark Nash, a longtime housing analyst, says one of the most agonizing tradeoffs many families face is between a newer house with a longer commute and an older property closer to the workplace of one or both buyers.

Buyers who consider an outer-tier suburb are often driven by the desire for what they perceive to be better schools.

But before you opt for a distant suburb, Nash strongly recommends you do morning and afternoon rush hour test drives. This way, you’ll know more precisely what sort of traffic to expect if you buy there.

Nash says buyers should disabuse themselves of the notion that the current level of traffic congestion on their path will remain static. The odds are that the traffic will worsen as the years go on.

-- Don’t assume that a big yard is essential.

Many people with young children hang on tightly to the hope that their offspring will have a large backyard where they can frolic. This aspiration can influence them to pick an outlying suburb at the expense of their convenience and commuting time.

But are the tradeoffs necessary to acquire a large piece of land worth it? Not necessarily, says Nash, noting that today’s children often spend much more time in organized athletic and recreational activities than did their parents.

“In many cases, the era of ‘free range’ children is behind us. Many more kids have tight after-school sports schedules during the school year and highly organized camps during the summer,” he says.

-- Allow yourself the ease of an unhurried home search.

During the pandemic, those seeking to own in a popular neighborhood faced intense competition. They felt pressured to act quickly, lest they lose out to a rival. Because of that, many buyers took regrettable shortcuts -- often rushing into a purchase without analyzing whether the property they purchased truly matched their lifestyle.

But given that there are now very few highly competitive seller’s markets, buyers can slow down the process without fear of losing out.

“Don’t let salespeople hype you into a premature home commitment. There’s far too much at stake,” Nash says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A retired couple in the Miami suburb of Kendale Lakes have lived in the well-liked Florida town for more than 20 years. They decided to sell three years ago, but with no time pressure, they procrastinated.

“We shoulda gone on market during the pandemic. Miami was a boomtown then for finance people trying to escape New York City. But we let that moment slip by, and we’re sorry we did. Values here hit their peak in mid-2022,” says the wife.

The couple remain determined to move to Cincinnati, where three of their four grandchildren live. That’s why they finally attempted to sell their Spanish-style stucco house this past summer, but to no avail. A $25,000 price drop didn’t move the property.

“After months with no offers, we went ahead and delisted our place last week, calling our real estate agent to postpone. The idea is that when we go back on the market, we want to update and freshen the house, which was built way back in 1981,” the husband says.

But the couple, both in their 60s and heavily reliant on Social Security, have limited cash. What’s more, they differ on which presale expenditures would pay them back with higher proceeds at the closing table.

Both agree that the kitchen should be the focus of their upgrades and that the worn linoleum flooring in that room must be torn up and replaced with new luxury vinyl planks. But while the husband argues for brand-new kitchen cabinets, the wife thinks it would suffice to simply replace the cabinet doors.

“Gutting the whole kitchen would be overkill and excessively costly. You’d be lucky to get 30% to 60% of your expense back for this,” says Stacy Berman, a Maryland real estate agent.

The Miami couple are hardly the only potential sellers vexed about how to cope with the current softness of the real estate market where they live. Other soft markets include parts of Texas and Colorado, among others.

According to an analysis by economists at Redfin, the national realty firm, sellers are retreating in large part because buyers are nervous now due to the state of the economy and stubbornly high mortgage rates.

Carlos Castillo, a Redfin agent in Los Angeles, doesn’t know the Miami retirees. But he cautions that owners in their position should limit their upgrades so as not to overprice their property.

“Sellers have to price their homes very reasonably to attract interest,” says Castillo.

Here are a few pointers for home sellers:

-- Reach out to three real estate pros for insights.

Mark Nash, a longtime Chicago-area real estate broker and analyst, says that before they commit to any remodeling projects, it’s wise for sellers to discuss the work they’re considering with real estate people who know their area.

He recommends you contact three local agents for advice on which home improvement projects are truly worth the expense. Most well-established agents will visit your house and advise you, even if you don’t intend to sell for another three to five years.

“Good agents are in their field for the long-term. They’re not just looking for a quick sale,” Nash says.

As an added benefit, he notes that many agents maintain a database of reliable contractors.

“They’ll help you find people who will do your projects smoothly, within your budget and on time,” Nash says.

-- Identify neighborhood norms for your area.

Julie Tuggle, a North Carolina real estate broker since 1985, says current buyers won’t pick up the tab for any renovation work that raises a property above neighborhood standards.

“Never underestimate the know-how of house hunters. They work the internet constantly and know exactly what homes in your neighborhood are going for. Forget seeking to trick them into overpaying for a property that exceeds local norms,” Tuggle says.

What sort of upgrades constitute “over-improvement”? For example, you wouldn’t want to install high-end, designer light fixtures in a neighborhood of starter homes. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to construct a three-car garage in a neighborhood where most houses have no garage at all.

-- Call off projects that prove too expensive.

If you think your contractors are going over the top, it’s better to stop projects before they’re finished than to overspend on work that will cost much more than expected.

“For example, most buyers don’t care if they get super appliances in the kitchen or laundry room. It’s the basic house and floor plan they’re looking for and not high-end elements in every room,” Nash says.

As he points out, real estate agents often recommend the use of less expensive products than are suggested by contractors. For example, you don’t need to spend your money on top-of-the-line carpeting when a mid-level grade will do just as well. Or you might wish to opt for generic hardware in your kitchen and bathrooms rather than ultra-stylish hardware.

“It’s true that bailing out of work with a contractor can cost you a penalty. But doing so might still be the wise course if a project has become too ambitious,” Nash says.

-- Decelerate the renovation process to avoid costly mistakes.

As Nash notes, many sellers realize too late that a thoughtlessly executed remodeling program can hit their wallet hard. That’s why he recommends you write on an index card the basic elements of a well-thought-out plan. Then have that index card handy as a reference guide when contractors come over to do estimates.

“It’s far better to proceed thoughtfully than to rush headlong into changes that could push you over your budget,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A married pair of San Diego real estate brokers were in their early 30s in 2010 when they bought their first home, a tiny two bedroom with ample space for the couple and a price tag within their reach.

But within a few years, the pair had their first baby, followed by a set of twins. That’s when they began looking for a much bigger abode to accommodate their growing family, says Justin Gramm, one of the brokers who helped the couple find a home.

While it’s a good bet to make your first home one that could expand to fit your spatial needs for years ahead, he says that’s often impossible from a financial standpoint.

“The moral of the story is to always buy what you can when you can, yet be extremely careful about the property you select,” says Gramm, who heads San Diego-based Globella Buyers Realty, which works exclusively with buyers and takes no listings.

Ivy Zelman, a housing industry analyst based in New York, says would-be first-time buyers find the current real estate market even more challenging than did those trying to break into ownership a decade or two ago. One key factor is that house prices have barely moderated in many areas.

“I think the first-time buyer is really struggling. Mortgage rates have to come down meaningfully to make a difference,” says Zelman, who contends many novice buyers need rates as low as 4.5% to buy their first property.

One approach to saving on rates is to take a “mortgage-buydown” that’s offered by a homebuilder as an incentive to increase or hasten sales. In such a case, the homebuilding firm, using its own connections to select mortgage lenders, pays money upfront to lower the buyers’ mortgage rate.

To entice wannabe homebuyers facing income constraints, up to 70% of homebuilders are currently offering mortgage buydowns, Zelman notes.

Unfortunately, not all popular metro areas feature newly constructed homes that are reasonably convenient and affordable for first-time buyers. Therefore, the primary inventory in those areas typically involves resale properties.

Here are a few pointers for first-time buyers hoping to close a deal in 2026:

-- Look for a property with your future lifestyle in mind.

First-timers sometimes make the mistake of expecting to keep their property for just a few years before moving on.

But Tom Early, an independent Ohio real estate broker, strongly advises clients to buy with a time horizon of at least five years, due to the high transaction costs associated with selling one house and moving to another.

“These days, you can’t necessarily count on appreciation in home values to bail you out on transition costs if you wind up selling in just a couple of years,” Early says.

-- Avoid picking an oddball property.

“You don’t want to buy a contemporary in a neighborhood full of colonials,” says Mark Nash, author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home.”

The problem with what Nash calls “the odd-man-out house” is that one day it could be hard to sell.

“Most people feel safer about their investment if the place they buy looks like all their neighbors’ homes,” he says.

-- Identify your priorities to better compare your housing options.

Since 1981, when Early entered the real estate field, he’s worked with several thousand buyers. Experience has taught him that purchasers who write down their priorities are less likely to err.

Before you go home shopping, Early encourages you to compose two lists. One should itemize “must-have” home features and the other -- a “wish list” -- should include features you could live without if trade-offs must be made.

-- Exclude the biggest house in your neighborhood of choice.

Some buyers are always tempted to seek out the biggest houses in a neighborhood. But Early explains that such a house is unlikely to gain as much value as an average-sized place in the same area.

Granted, the biggest house will likely appreciate, assuming it’s located in a popular area. Still, its owners will get less of a boost in value on a per-square-foot basis than will the owners of a smaller house, because the median home will set the standard for the area.

-- Avoid a fixer-upper with serious issues.

An increasing number of buyers are covering the cost of a professional home inspection to help identify potential defects in the property they’ve selected. Realtors generally support the involvement of independent home inspectors.

But agents also note that occasionally first-time buyers will go forward with a home purchase despite an inspector’s report that outlines worrisome faults.

Early says buyers who encounter major problems with a property-- such as trouble with the foundation or unsafe electrical wiring -- are often well-advised to simply walk away.

“You’ve got to let go emotionally of any house that’s a serious fixer-upper—unless you’re extraordinarily handy,” he says.

-- Slow down the property selection process.

As Early says, a good real estate agent will listen attentively to buyers when they express housing needs and preferences. The agent should also show diligence in pre-screening properties that seem well suited to the buyers’ needs.

But buyers should be wary of any agent who tries to pressure them to take a particular house—especially one they’re ambivalent about.

“The right agent is one who respects your time, your money and your priorities,” Early says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)